Rohit will lead in Tests too; The ‘drama’ of avoiding the split captaincy coli? | Kohli

After taking over as captain of the ODI and Twenty20 teams, Rohit Sharma has been replaced by the Indian Test team captaincy. Rohit will lead India in the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka. So while Rohit himself has been promoted to captain in all 3 formats, the BCCI’s dream of a split captaincy remains a dream again. The BCCI will also have to justify Virat Kohli’s ‘firing’ in the name of split captaincy.

∙ Team India and split captaincy

Team India has always been averse to the successful implementation of the split captaincy policy of one captain for each format in other teams. The official split captaincy team was formed in India in 2007 when MS Dhoni took over the Twenty20 captaincy.

However, due to the defeat in the ODI World Cup that day, Dhoni was left out of the Twenty20 team, including captain Rahul Dravid. Dhoni celebrates his chance to win his first Twenty20 title in India. The BCCI soon decided to make Dhoni the captain of all three formats.

Dhoni era

From 2007 to 2014, Team India did not have a single captain or player to challenge or replace Dhoni, who won the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. Despite the occasional criticism of his batting form, Dhoni’s excellence in captaincy has never been questioned.

He also captained the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. Other teams had split captaincy at the time but could not find a replacement for Dhoni as the policy was not implemented in Team India alone.

∙ Collie Coming …

During the 2014 tour of Australia, Dhoni unexpectedly resigned as Test captain and retired from Test cricket. Dhoni has been criticized for his consistent form in Test cricket. In Tests outside India, Dhoni’s performance was below average. All of these factors led to his announcement of retirement.

The BCCI, wondering who would succeed Dhoni, handed over the task to Virat Kohli, then Team India’s batting arm. Though the captain failed to win the maiden series, Kohli started a new era in captaincy by leading the team with more than 500 runs, including three centuries. Team India, which used to play ‘cool cricket’ under Dhoni, is turning to ‘eye for an eye, tooth for tooth’ aggressive cricket during the Koli era.

Internal strife

Despite not winning any major tournaments under Kohli, Team India has managed to retain the number one spot in the Test rankings and win ODIs and Twenty20 series, including overseas. Meanwhile, Anil Kumble will take over as the team’s coach in 2016.

Kumble’s first mission to the BCCI was to end the innocence of senior players in the team. In an attempt to do so, however, senior players, including Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, came out against Kumble. He had no choice but to resign. The BCCI was unable to take action against captain Kohli over the issue with Kumble as the team’s performance was excellent despite the absence of a coach.

Dada’s arrival

With Sourav Ganguly taking over as BCCI president in 2019, problems with the board and the players have resurfaced. With the team out of the 2019 ODI World Cup, the BCCI has again discussed the issue of split captaincy. Following the defeat in the 2021 World Twenty20, the BCCI was told that the team would have to implement split captaincy in India. If Australia, England and South Africa can be split captains, why not the Indian team?

Meanwhile, the decline in Kohli’s form has accelerated this demand. The BCCI has demanded that Rohit Sharma, who has captained the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, be replaced as captain in the Twenty20s. Kohli gave in to it with no other option. The board asked Kohli to step down from the ODI captaincy soon after. This irritated Koli. Kohli resigned as Test captain following his resignation from the ODI captaincy. With that, Rohit got a chance to captain in all three formats.

Where is the split captaincy?

The BCCI had asked Kohli to step down from the captaincy in order to implement a one-captain policy for each format. But Rohit Sharma, who replaced Kohli, is now the captain in all three formats. With this, the need for split captaincy is again only a necessity.

Some even wonder if this split captaincy is a play played by the BCCI to get rid of Kohli. It has even been argued that Kohli’s stand against former coach Anil Kumble was sought by Ganguly after he became the BCCI president. In any case, cricket fans are worried about how long the split captaincy team will have to wait to be implemented in India.

English Summary: Where is the idea of split captaincy in India?